That irresistible line about the caveman, by the way, came from a reddit commenter. He was probably feeling celebratory over the fact that GEICO pulled all its advertising from Glenn Beck's hateful Fox TV show. And GEICO isn't the only company to have decided that advertising on the show of a vicious hate monger inciting violence and racial hatred is a bad marketing idea. Men's Wearhouse and Sargento are the latest companies to ask Fox to stop running their ads on TV. And today-- Blue America did the same.

Blue America is running a second wave of ads on Arkansas TV explaining Blanche Lincoln's duplicitous role in the health care debate. After looking at the logs of the first wave and noticing that some of our ads in Little Rock and Pine Bluff ran on Beck's show, we instructed the cable networks to not run any more ads on his programs in the towns we are advertising in this week-- the towns where Lincoln is doing her health care forums. Here's the note the Blue America media buyer sent to the Arkansas cable networks:

Blue America PAC has instructed me to tell you to not place any of their advertising within the Glenn Beck program on Fox News Channel for their upcoming flight.

There is a national boycott of his advertisers ongoing. as Mr. Beck has been promoting racism and violence on his program. We do not want to appear to support his efforts in any way, shape or form.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Jacqueline Propps

As for Men's Wearhouse, DailyKos published a letter yesterday from Matt Stringer, the vp of marketing/creative services:

Thank you for contacting Men’s Wearhouse and bringing to our attention your concerns with the Glenn Beck program on Fox News. While we support free speech and do not make advertising decisions based on our own personal ideologies, after reviewing his recent incendiary comments we have decided to remove our advertising from his program. We hope that this decision will allow you to continue to patronize Men’s Wearhouse. I would encourage you to please share our decision with anyone else who may have expressed a similar concern.

And Media Matters published a similar note from Pat Lombardo from the Sargento Consumer Affairs Department:

We deeply appreciate your reaching out to us and sharing your comments and concerns about Sargento ads appearing during The Glenn Beck Show. We sat down with the marketing department to talk about it and I learned that we buy time periods not specific programs. But in any event, they've made the decision to exclude that program from our future ad rotation. Simply stated, Sargento ads won't be airing during that show. Again, thanks for contacting us.

As Color Of Change, the online civil rights group that initiated the boycott, points out, these defections come on the heels of pull outs by LexisNexis-owned Lawyers.com, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance and SC Johnson.

So what's wrong with Travelocity? Why do they insist on still underwriting the hatred, bigotry and violence? As a reader pointed out on my travel blog this morning, "perhaps someone could clue Travelocity into the fact that racists aren't the biggest travelers..."

CNN has a similar type of problem with their own in house racist sociopath, Lou Dobbs and, according to MediaBistro.com the network is moving away from using Hate Talk Radio commentators on the air from now on, although they still refuse to fire Dobbs (who also hosts a hate talk radio show).

TVNewser has learned, and a CNN spokesperson confirms, that in his morning editorial meeting today, CNN/U.S. president Jon Klein asked his show producers to avoid booking talk radio hosts. "Complex issues require world class reporting," Klein is quoted as saying, adding that talk radio hosts too often add to the noise, and that what they say is "all too predictable."

Yesterday I spent over 4 hours at a town hall meeting hosted by Rep. Adam Schiff in Alhambra. The disruptive clowns who had come to prevent a discussion were shouting slogans straight from the Astro-Turf outfits' talking points and their world views were clearly formed by Hate Talk Radio and Fox "News." These people are hysterically opposed to immigrants' babies getting health care and opposed to the government making it illegal for Insurance companies to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. What they chant instead is "Tort Reform" and what they mutter is divisive and racist epithets most Americans thought went out of style with Lester Maddox, George Wallace and the cavemen.

UPDATE: Bad News For Teabaggers-- You're Being Played

The teabaggers like to take their thumbs out of their asses and jump up and down in front of the TV cameras claiming how real and genuine their grassroots protests are. I talked to so many of them with long lists of legitimate grievances-- one woman was suing her insurance company and very angry man with strange eyes is suing the gold company Glenn Beck shills for on radio that he claims cheated him-- but their grievances had nothing to do with what they disdainfully call "ObamaCare." How did they get from there to here? It wasn't via Pluto. According to a former Insurance Industry executive, Wendell Potter of CIGNA, the insurance companies are indeed the unseen hand behind the curtain manipulating the righteous-- or self-righteous-- indignation of the angry crowds getting their matching orders from hate-mongers like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity ,etc.

"The industry is up to the same dirty tricks this year," Potter said at a Capitol news conference after meeting with House Rules Committee Chairwoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), an avid supporter of the Democrats' plans for a healthcare overhaul.

"When you hear someone complaining about traveling down a 'slippery slope to socialism,' some insurance flack, like I used to be, wrote that," Potter added.

Potter said during his 20 years in the insurance business, the industry would funnel money to large public firms who would create front groups and find friendly voices in conservative media.

In particular, he cited front groups created to fight "Patients' Bill of Rights" legislation in the 1990s, as well as a campaign to discredit the Michael Moore film Sicko, which harshly criticized the industry.

Slaughter joined in the attack, saying "the notion that this is going to be something devilish comes from the people who would lose money on it."

You can view this video right here by getting the latest version of Flash Player!

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The Caucus Blog [New York Times]

A leading conservative legal advocacy group that has a played a prominent role in the debate over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor has created a new ad accusing her of supporting violent terrorists and comparing her to former Weatherman Bill Ayers.

At one point, the ad ...shows a picture of Judge Sotomayor alongside the text: “SUPPORTED VIOLENT TERRORISTS.”

Mr. Levey said the ad was written by Chris LaCivita, who also helped create the Swift Boat Vets for Truth ads against Senator John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. The Swift Boat ads were riddled with unsubstantiated charges and led to a new political term for smearing a political opponent with lies: “swift-boating.”

Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman, called the Sotomayor ad “an uniquely implausible act in wingnuttery.” Right Wing Watch, a division of the liberal People for the American Way, called it “over-the-top and nonsensical.”

Mr. Levey acknowledged that the ad presented a “caricature,” but it defended it as “factually true.”

In fairness, when I first saw this ad I was so sure it was a hoax, I asked the gang at Relaxed Politics to do a little digging for me. It's real.

And now Think Progress reports that Orrin Hatch has distanced himself from the ad, even though he's attended fundraisers for the group that produced it. Hatch claims this is "not the kind of ad he would run."

But did you help pay for it, Senator?

The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee should start a big fat file labeled "With Friends Like These..."

A group calling themselves "Answers in Genesis" recently took out a billboard in Texas depicting a young boy holding a gun.

Here’s how Answers in Genesis describes themselves:

An apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry, dedicated to enabling Christians to defend their faith and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ effectively…we also desire to train others to develop a biblical worldview, and seek to expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas, and its bedfellow, a “millions of years old” earth (and even older universe).

[..]Personally, I can’t believe they are implying that non-believers, or to whom God “doesn’t matter,” are going to take a gun and shoot someone in the face.

Striking yes; thoughtful, absolutely not.

Although supposedly their beef is with evolution, I don’t see how that point is conveyed with this picture. So, according to them, believing what Darwin had to say means a person is lawless and will go on a killing rampage?

They were so enamored of this image, they used it in a TV ad as well:

Given the rising violence we're seeing lately, I hope that Answers in Genesis remove the ad and rethink the campaign altogether, before someone interprets it as a way to prove their faith.

I can't even describe the sheer awesomeness of this site where pieces of coal are singing Christmas carols about clean coal! And you get to put hats on them, and scarves - you'll love it, too. (Thanks to Dr. S. from Redsoxville.)

DOWNLOAD (15)

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Conservatives have been trying to blame Obama for the market drop ever since he won the election. What a shock, right?

Neil Cavuto and Ben Stein got into a screaming match over the state of the economy after the bailout Saturday morning on Fox's Cavuto for Business. I've never seen them go at it like that before. It started immediately when Cavuto opened up the segment by saying we've spent 2 trillion dollars so far to fix the problem, which is patently false, and Stein called him out on it. (rough transcript.)

Stein: The $2 trillion dollar number you cited at the beginning is a completely made up number, I don't know where you got it from.

We asked, no, no no Ben.,..

Cavuto: What do you think it is?

Stein: Closer to $300 billion...

Cavuto: Oh, no, no, no, Ben I gotta stop you there...

Stein: Could I answer your question?

Cavuto: When you are supporting one institution after the other ...

Stein: You are doing the classic post hoc ergo prop drop fallacy. You may as well say because there was a World Series, the market dropped 4000 points. The Federal government has to stabilize this economy.

Cavuto: No it doesn't, Ben. No, no, and by the way, we were pre-hocking on this ...

Stein: The Federal government is the only one that can stabilize this economy.

Cavuto: It is a slippery slope Ben...

Stein: Then otherwise we fall into a great depression. Maybe not a problem for you, but a problem for everybody else.

Cavuto: Oh, stop the nonsense.

Stein: It isn't nonsense.

Cavuto: Where do you draw the nonsensical line.

Stein: We go in for as much Federal stimulus as it takes keep us out of a great depression. That is basic common sense ... We need to bail out the auto companies, we need to have a massive stimulus package. This economy is about to fall off a cliff. We need major stimulus.

Cavuto attacks Pelosi too....And it goes on from there. There is great fear among economists whenever they get honest. It's no joke. Obama has inherited a nightmare. Just so you know, Cavuto was yelling at McCain's people when they tried to play with the bailout, so he has no credibility when it comes to crying about things now.

Ben Stein favors the Paul Krugman plan or if I may say, the Keynesian approach to the depression-like state of our economy. He believes, as do a lot of us, that Obama should not hold back government spending at all and help rescue the auto industry, or Armageddon will befall us. It really is that simple. And when these Conservatives talk about letting actual cities go bankrupt, well, they are insane. And many of them like Steve Forbes, who is in that camp, can just move to another city. They really want to see things get worse in our country to help Republicans...

People for the American Way has created an ad that is now playing in potential Democratic-pick up Senate seats, targeting Susan Collins (Maine), Norm Coleman (Minnesota), Elizabeth Dole (North Carolina), John Sununu (New Hampshire) and Gordon Smith (Oregon).

As part of People For the American Way's Save the Court campaign, we're running ads in key states targeting senators who voted against their constituents' interests by supporting George W. Bush's extreme judicial nominees.

The ads below call out senators who sided with Bush when it came to judicial nominees whose decisions had very real — and negative — impacts on families in their state.

I'm a member of PFAW. You can join as well, and your donation will help buy ad time and hopefully help us increase the Democratic majority in the Senate.

By the way, one of the reasons that Dole faces such a tough race? The perception that she is nothing more than an empty suit. In 2006, she only spent 13 days in her state and was rated by Congress.org as 93rd most effective senator. In a field of 100, that's gotta hurt.

VetVoice:

The ad features Peter Granato, Iraq War Veteran. In the ad, Granato fires shots from an AK-47 through the kind of flak jacket troops were given early on in the war, and modern Body Armor, featuring (Stand Alone Protective Insert (SAPI) plates. The shots go through the older vest, but are stopped by the newer armor. Granato explains that Chambliss voted against funding to give American troops the newer armor.

Chambliss did so twice, voting against an amendment offered by Senator Christopher Dodd in 2003 (S.Amdt. 1817), which would have appropriated $300 million more for needed equipment for the troops, including proper Body Armor, to make up for a funding shortfall that did not meet the request of the US Army. He also voted against an amendment by Senator Mary Landrieu ( S.Amdt. 452) in the same year that would have appropriated $1 billion for equipment on a list of priorities from the Marines, also including Body Armor, as Landrieu made clear in her press release on the amendment at the time.

"Senator Chambliss should be held accountable for these votes, and troops and veterans are doing just that," said Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org.

Chambliss, the man who smeared triple amputee Max Cleland to win his seat in 2002 is now locked in a really close race against Democrat Jim Martin -- in fact, the state of Georgia is now a swing state -- and with your help, his seat could be part of our filibuster-proof 60 seat Democratic majority.

You can help Jim Martin at Act Blue. Do it for Max.

The group America's Voices put out this ad which exposes John McCain's lying ad that says Obama killed immigration reform.

On Friday, Senator John McCain released what the New York Times editorial board blog has denounced as a "fraudulent" Spanish television ad, accusing Senator Obama and other Senate Democrats of "killing immigration reform."

The Washington Post blog also weighed in with a scathing piece that argued, "Obama supported the bipartisan John McCain-Edward Kennedy efforts to enact such reforms and voted for their final proposal last year."Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) said in a statement released by the Obama campaign Friday.

"The man who said he would vote against his own immigration bill during the Republican presidential debates, who was unwilling to stand up to his own party when they approved an anti-immigrant platform, cannot attack Democrats on immigration in Spanish, while pandering to the extreme right Tancredo wing of the Republican Party in English

McCain seems to forget that it was Republicans and the psycho right wing blogs and talk shows that killed the immigration bill, not Obama. McCain tries to say that he stands up to his party, but in a huge bill that he supported with Ted Kennedy, he backed down and caved. No Maverick here, folks

This week, John McCain's campaign launched a TV ad in Spanish which blamed Barack Obama and the Democrats for the death of comprehensive immigration reform. Is it true?

Not at all. The ad covers up the fact that it was Republicans who voted down immigration reform, giving into a fired-up, anti-immigrant base. In fact, just this month, John McCain's own Republican Party unveiled an anti-reform platform on immigration. It went from bad to worse.

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

Hmmm, I still can never trust this guy, but when facts outweigh talking points, even Rove points out the obvious.

Rove: McCain has gone in some of his ads similarly gone one step too far in sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know...beyond, beyond, beyond the, the 100% truth test.

Rove has to stutter when he talks about honesty and the McCain camp...He made Elmer Fudd proud. What percentage of honesty does Rove base his truth-o-meter on?

During this historic campaign it will be far too easy to throw the "racist" and "sexist" terms around.  But this ad is racist...and it's time to call them on it.  From the excellent blog, Commonplace Book:

Ordering a black man to show you respect is pretty over the top in 2008. I'm sure McCain's constituency in the South and perhaps right here in Indiana will recognize the terminology from their (thankfully) long ago heydays of sundown towns and lynch mob gatherings, ...and respond accordingly.

There's only one response to that ad:  "That's racist!"  Read more...

  I wonder if McCain was expecting a soft-ball interview today on "The View" because he sure didn't get one. Joy Behar and Barbara Walter grill McCain on how he could possibly approve of ads that are so riddle with distortions and outright falsehoods.

Download | play   Download | play  

"There are ads running from your campaign... Now we know that those two ads are untrue, they are lies. And yet, you say at the end of it you 'approve these messages.' Do you really approve these?"

Who would have thought the ladies of "The View" could be so hard-hitting?: 

CNN: McCain Gets Grilled on The View. 

Republican nominee Sen. John McCain, appearing Friday on ABC's "The View," was aggressively pressed on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's qualifications to be vice president as well as his new campaign ads that several independent fact-check groups have called misleading...read on

HuffPo has more clips.

  PolitickerME: 

Senate candidates Susan Collins (R-Bangor) and Tom Allen (D-Portland) both denounced an ad that hit Collins on her support of the Iraq War.

The ad is from the third party veterans' organization VoteVets.org that opposes the Iraq War.[..]

The campaigns for both Collins, the incumbent, and Allen, a current U.S. Representative, released statement on the ad.

First, the Collins campaign called on Allen to denounce the ad, citing a recent promise Allen made to denounce all third party ads.[..]

One hour later the Allen campaign responded. Communications director Carol Andrews said that Allen would in fact denounce the ad.[..]

Andrews then turned to both candidates' records on the war, criticizing Collins for opposing a deadline for withdrawal.

"Because he feels so strongly about a deadline for withdrawal, Tom Allen has repeatedly voted against measures for funding that do not include binding deadlines for withdrawal," Andrews wrote. "Susan Collins has repeatedly opposed setting timelines or deadlines."

Help me out, why is a Democrat denouncing a VoteVets ad against his rival?  Why have they not figured out that they have public sentiment with them to go hard on this Iraq issue?  I understand not wanting to go negative yourself, but that's what proxies are for...don't hamstring them, especially when it's the truth.

While John McCain and Barack Obama met with Rev. Warren at the Saddleback Church this weekend, the progressive Christian PAC Matthew 25 unveiled a new ad featuring religious leaders supporting Obama. In the ad, Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell - the Methodist minister who married Jenna Bush - takes a not-too-subtle dig at McCain over what McCain acknowledged to be his "greatest moral failing" at the forum - the failure of his first marriage.

h/t Dan Manatt at techPresident.

More background at Strategy '08.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that John McCain would match Barack Obama's $5 million ad buy during the Olympics with a $6 million campaign of his own. Surely McCain wouldn't be dumb enough to sour the uplifting national mood fostered by the Olympics by running a fear-mongering attack ad, right? Wrong.

Here's Obama's positive ad about the direction in which he wants to take America:

And here's McCain's:

Which do you find more effective?

I've seen these ads at least five times each over the past few days. Putting myself in the shoes of your average voter, McCain's ad (by the second viewing or so) comes across as overly offensive and divisive while trying to drive home the exact same point. Obama's positive message is "I want to take the energy policy of this country in a different direction." McCain's negative message is "Obama is a celebrity who can't be trusted to take energy policy in a new direction, which is what I want to do by proposing the same policies as Obama." The McCain campaign must have internals numbers showing the "celebrity" meme gaining some traction. It's going to be interesting to see if McCain's decision to go negative backfires. To rational, level-headed undecideds, it just might.

(Here's s link to the ad) John McCain attacks Obama in another low brow ad, but uses Taco Bell to attack Obama with. Say, what? Since Rove and his pals have been calling Obama an elitist who eats arugula salads and goes to exotic places---the use of Taco Bell only weakens their argument. And that has been much of what they are trying to do to Obama. Make him a light weight. A fly on the wall of big thinking politicians.

I do disagree with Josh Marshal about the race angle on this ad though. I think we have to be careful because we run the risk of losing the argument if it's not clearer to the American people when McCain's camp actually does use it. (And you know it is part of their playbook.) It will only give Rick Davis the opportunity to come out yelling and screaming to the media that Obama is the one actually playing the race card again and he will win because the media is intimidated by him. By the way, the AFL-CIO in Ohio wants Davis fired because...

The deal was made possible in 2003, when McCain and high-priced lobbyist Rick Davis, McCain's current campaign manager, both pushed to allow the German company Deutsche Post to take over DHL and get around antitrust laws. Davis' lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, was hired to help both companies deal with Congress, where objections over DHL's foreign ownership arose. Davis and a partner earned their firm $185,000 for the DHL-Airborne Express work that year, and $405,00...read on